Catching up on some news from last month, Microsoft has announced the latest quarterly updated for Exchange Server 2016 and 2013.
- Cumulative Update 7 for Exchange Server 2016 (download | UM language pack)
- Cumulative Update 18 for Exchange Server 2013 (download | UM language pack)
Exchange 2016 CU7 enforces a minimum forest functional level of Windows Server 2008 R2. The support requirement for FFL of 2008R2 has actually existed since Exchange 2016 CU3, but CU7 is the first CU to enforce it.
There is no change in .NET Framework 4.7.x support with these CUs. .NET 4.7.x remains unsupported for now, and should not be deployed to Exchange servers. The Exchange team plans to include support for .NET 4.7.1 (not 4.7.0) in the December 2017 CU releases, and will require .NET 4.7.1 from June 2018 onwards. You should check your .NET Framework versions and make a plan to upgrade to stay within the supported scenarios listed on the supportability matrix. The Exchange Analyzer tool can help flag .NET/Exchange compatibility issues in your environment.
The comments of the Exchange team blog post call attention to a few issues that customers are experiencing rolling out these updates. As always, you should test CU releases before you deploy them to your production servers.
Hi Paul,
A little off topic here- Upgrading from 2010 to 2016. Installing Exchange 2016 in our site with Hybrid Configuration. Planning to move some mailboxes to ExOnline now but the idea is to migrate most mailboxes to Ex2016.
Question is can we keep the existing Autodiscover SCP pointed to Exchange 2010 servers for now? eventually we will have it pointed to Ex2016.
Appreciate any guidance. Thanks
Raj
Autodiscover should resolve to the higher version of Exchange in your org. If you leave it on the 2010 server then your 2016 mailbox users won’t be able to connect.
Hi Paul. Thanks for your reply. Prior to moving mailboxes to 2016 we’ll cut AutoD and other name spaces over to 2016. Thank you.
Has Microsoft changed the update pattern for Exchange 2010? I noticed RU19 wasn’t released last month for 2010 so I’m curious as to why.
Exchange 2010 is out of mainstream support and is now in extended support. That means no updates, except for security fixes. So you should not expect to see any update rollups for 2010 in future, unless there’s a security fix needed.